Fragmentum annuarium Collegii Societatis Iesu Claudiopolitani : The Account of a Jesuit Mission in Transylvania, 1659-1662 (original) (raw)
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An Overview of Political and Religious Aspects in 17th Century Transylvania
This article is by no means revolutionary. It does not present radically new information that would challenge the old established historical analyses. It doesn’t even attempt to brag about some new conclusions, based on well informed sources, dug up in some dusty corner of an old forgotten library shelf. The point of this article is to show how complex the 17th-century political and religious environments were. Be-neath the well-known polished histories, which aimed at presenting a certain kind of history, favoring one or the other of the ruling parties (Romanian scholars are well aware of the Communist forged histories), there lies a sea of original documents and academic interpretations, that have come to light in the past three hundred years. All these make up the history of Transylvania, a history ripe with contrasting conclusions and various interpretations which will leave the uninformed reader with a genuine sense of awe at the numerous crucial characters, who created various contexts, with various outcomes for the following generations.
2018
The latest work of Borbála Zsuzsanna Török, Exploring Transylvania: Geographies of Knowledge and Entangled Histories in a Multiethnic Province, 1790-1918, traces the institutionalization of the Landeskunde discipline, together with its Hungarian adaptation called honismeret, throughout the long nineteenth century in Transylvania. The author defines both terms generally as the “scholarly mapping of a certain territory” and “the encyclopedic and systematic description of the land or the ‘fatherland’ [Translyvania]” (p. 1). Her book explores the evolution of Landeskunde and honismeret from their encyclopedic outlook during the Enlightenment to a singular focus on the nation and its history by the turn of the century. She states that, “indeed, Transylvania has been considered a ‘locus classicus’ of entangled and rival nationalisms” (p. 9). Up to now, only a couple of works provide a limited analysis of nineteenth-century Transylvanian cultural developments, including Török’s own earlier...
"FLANDRENSES, MILITES ET HOSPITES" A HISTORY OF TRANSYLVANIA
Writing the history is never neutral as reasons, causes and explanations need to be revealed. Like each one of us, a territory can be found under several identities. We have to listen to the stories of this Transylvanian land and tell them further. Before " homo loquens " (the speaking man) there was " homo narrans " (the storyteller). Writing is reached in a later stage. In this short essay it is impossible to track the history of this land at full length. I just want to clarify a few reference points that show the link between the Transylvanian language and traditions and the territories that nowadays are Belgian. There are quite a few historical questions that are still being debated among researchers. Some of them, like Lucian Boia1, rely on facts, but there is discussion on their interpretation; and some are proponents of the Daco-Roman Continuity Theory, which is dominated by the symbolism of the story. Indeed, since the end of the eighteenth-century, the quest of European States towards an identity is creating myths that we would like to believe corresponding with a historical reality based on established facts. Besides, the identity of people is a " mille-feuille " in development, the reflection of the mix of various cultures and a subjective view. Unfortunately for those who dream of purity, the origin of the European people is a genetic melting pot that is reflected by a general intermix. The exaltation of the origin, the cult of borders and sacred traditions are only defences against the anxiety of the Other. This concept is deeply imbedded within the definitions of origins of Self and of the personal identification process. Transylvania has seen many migrations before acquiring its current culture. The one that had the biggest impact in shaping it is certainly the one initiated by the " Flandrenses " in the twelfth century. Today, after 800 years it is threatened with extinction. Since 1990, the emigration of Saxons from Transylvania leaves as testimony only their monuments and their culture. Beside the large transhumance like the Flandrenses, small groups have continuously established here and there in the Carpathians, mixing with the local population. Beginning with a brief overview of the prehistory and the Roman conquest of Geto-Dacians, I will outline briefly in fourteen-steps some facets of the relationship between Belgians and Transylvanians, illustrated by historical figures and linguistic and toponimic examples that document these exchanges since the twelfth century. In the time of Charles V, the reciprocal relations were intense, despite religious wars. Later, Freiherr Samuel Breckner von Brukenthal, Protestant and Mason, is the great figure which dominates Hermannstadt/Sibiu for the second half of the eighteenth century. He has shown great interest for the northern origin of Saxons, as well as for the Flemish painting. Along with the Italian painting, it is the focus of his collections. The Principality of Transylvania was linked to the Hungarian crown; the northern Netherlands were also part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a few centuries. The union of the
The Functioning of the County in Medieval Transylvania (Early 14th Century–1540) [abstract]
The aim of this dissertation is to overview the functioning of Transylvanian county authorities from the early 14 th to the mid-16 th century. The term Transylvanian counties includes the seven counties (Lat.: comitatus) which were placed in the 13 th century under the authority of the royal official appointed as the head of the province, the Voivode of Transylvania. The periodization of the history of the counties is not always identical with the periodization used in political history. The changes in the institution of the county ended by the early 14 th century, leading to the "nobiliar" county, which took the place of the former "royal" counties, as termed by earlier scholarship. The beginnings of the "nobiliar" county were marked by the appearance of the judges of the nobles (Lat.: iudices nobilium; Hung.: szolgabíró) at the county courts and of charters issued by the county authorities. The earliest county charters issued in Transylvania all date to the first third of the 14 th century. The next transformation was brought about neither by the lost battle of Mohács (1526), nor by the Turkish occupation of Buda (1541) (at least not directly), but by the new political framework, the lengthy process of the formation of the Principality of Transylvania. The upper limit of my investigation is 1540although at times I will also refer to some laterespecially archontologicalevidence. On 22 April 1540, the Estates of Transylvania assembled at Torda (Ro.: Turda) and codified the operating procedures of the Transylvanian counties and brought some decrees to partially modify it. Although some of these measures remained on paper, they signify the beginning of a new stage in the development of the county, all the more so as such a kind of codification valid just for Transylvania had been unknown before. The text of the decree contended that the county comes (Hung.: ispán) continued to be appointed by the Voivode of Transylvania, but the vice-comes (Hung.: alispán) would no longer be appointed by the comes, but elected by the county nobility. While this was a clear sign of change, it only marked the first steps in transforming the counties into "local governments", which was yet another new stage in their development. The post-1540 development of the counties happened then in the framework of the Transylvanian state in formation, also witnessing, from 1556, the beginnings of a more regular legislation to settle the functioning of the Transylvanian counties. The evolution of this institution after the mid-16 th century is part of early modern history. After the monograph of József Holub (1885-1962) published in 1929 about the history of Zala county, the researches on the functioning of the nobility county came to a long-lasting halt.